The gargantuan intellect that is Stephen Hawking, who has more letters after his name than in it, and who retired  as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University only a year ago, has now more or less retired God as well.

As the ANC indicated it may be willing to listen to representations on the Protection of Information Bill as far as such are deemed “practicable and reasonable”, civic society and the media are organising to defend the public’s increasingly precarious rights to basic and fundamental freedoms. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Cyber-spooks look to super-programs to plug the holes in the intelligence dykes breached by Wiki-Leaks. And it’s not going to be a quick-in-quick-out guerrilla op either.

South Africa’s popular satirical site has shut shop, citing dismal advertising revenues and a fall off in syndication deals. As readers mourn the loss of bitingly brilliant content, pioneering parodists say satire is the hardest commercial sell from which to make a living. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Still the world's coolest company, Apple continues its drive to prefix “i” to everything that touches consumers' lives and wallets. In April, the target was good old “Ad”, a platform that was supposed to be a small advertiser's saviour. Barely five months later, the cracks in the hype are starting to appear.

Since the beginning of recorded history, poets and philosophers have suspected that language speaks us more than we speak language. Science tried in the twentieth century to prove the notion empirically, but ultimately failed. Now science is back – it appears our languages do make us think differently. Which is bad news for South Africa’s ‘we-are-one’-style marketing campaigns. By KEVIN BLOOM.

There are times when nothing illustrates the fights over factions, resources and power better than the SABC. It’s a parastatal, but it’s more public than the others. And that means that what happens behind the scenes becomes clearer than, say, your average Transnet board meeting. By STEPHEN GROOTES

The oldest surviving independent newspaper in South Africa was launched 179 years ago in the frontier settlement of Grahamstown. Today it’s called Grocott’s Mail, and while it’s got all the quirks of a community paper, it has the tradition and gumption of a national player. By KEVIN BLOOM.

As vicious strikes annihilate the warm fuzzy feelings of having hosted the World Cup and our politicians are condemned as predatory hyenas by their allies, the musical “Evita” is playing in Johannesburg. By LESLEY STONES.

With one of the most anticipated books of the modern era set to hit US shelves on 31 August, the literary establishment has embroiled itself in a fight about quality and gender discrimination that encompasses some of the biggest names in the business. Instigated by a piece in The Daily Maverick, the fight recently landed on local shores. Against our better judgment, we’re throwing another punch. By KEVIN BLOOM

The big trend in advertising, both locally and abroad, is acquisitions of digital talent by traditional agencies wanting to capture growing online and mobile marketing spend. But watch for the push from the other side, as digital agencies scale for growth and seek a bigger slice of the branding action. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Local consumer rights advocates say the Consumer Protection Act, due to be enforced from October 2010, could make way for a South African legal class action suit against Coca-Cola for misleading claims on its Glacéau vitaminwater.

When the question of declining standards of journalism comes up – as it has lately in the wake of the ANC’s calls for media oversight – the obvious place to look is the training institutions. But, if the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies is any indication, maybe we should be looking elsewhere.

There is nothing in the least bit subtle about Australian comedian Kevin Bloody Wilson. He’s a social yobbo, taking the mickey out of anything and anyone. Treading on toes and grinding down harder, battering you with liberally scattered expletives and vulgar songs.

Parliament's communications portfolio committee says it was simply trying to give SABC board members an opportunity to really speak their minds. Including on allegations of interference by President Jacob Zuma, perhaps. Editors say secrecy is not in the interests of the public. This time the editors won, though not before the SABC's chairman got to declare war on his board.

Given the current status of the standoff between local media and the ANC – around a “DEFCON 2” if The Party were the US military – it’s probably not a great idea to bait the joint chiefs with a book title that so heinously disrespects their leader. Still, that’s just what publisher Two Dogs and blogger Azad Essa are about to do.  

The latest in the series of media debates cropping up all over the country was at the University of Johannesburg on Monday night, with Baleka Mbete of the ANC, Mondli Makhanya of Avusa and Raymond Louw of SA Press Council on the panel. It turned out to be just another underwhelming night in the battle for the future of South Africa.

Assuming members of the ANC will actually read it, publication of the book 25 Years of the Mail & Guardian couldn’t have happened at a better time. Because here we have, in glorious full-colour, incontrovertible proof of who the newspaper supported in the years when it was kind of dangerous to do so.  

To most South Africans, Fareed Zakaria is largely unknown. Yet he is the West’s most influential Muslim writer and his work has a marked impact on the way America and the world understand Islam.

From human trafficking to organising scarce medical resources to mapping government shortfalls of essential drugs in Africa, FrontlineSMS is enabling activists, aid workers and NGOs to communicate effectively en masse. And all it takes is a computer, a mobile phone and a sliver of network presence.

On Friday, Facebook announced a new addition to its social networking site as part of its steady march to world conquest. And, as is often the case with the social networking behemoth, reactions ranged from dire warnings to loud applause.

Some say he designed the Jabulani World Cup soccer ball. Others say he is the secret love child of Susan Boyle and Wayne Rooney. All we know is he may be a former race driver from Bristol.

RONNIE KASRILS, former intelligence services minister, is the man who first put forward the Protection of Information Bill in Parliament early in 2008. Here he gives the motivations behind it then, what has been changed to unleash the current controversy, why he cannot support the Bill in its present form and how this stalemate should be resolved.

GREG GORDON has previously braved the beer tents to explore the upper limits of moderation. He gives The Daily Maverick readers a full-frontal account of the ultimate celebration of gastronomic and beer-fuelled excess.

Mobile operator Cell C’s controversial, copyright look-alike-logo was only “provisionally refused” by the Registrar of Trade Marks, which means company can appeal the outcome.

For the first time since the end of the Apartheid an incumbent US ambassador to South Africa has spoken out on a domestic controversy – the contentious media freedom proposals – and his words, while diplomatically couched, talk about the deep crisis this country is hurtling toward.

On Wednesday morning the chairman of Pick 'n Pay linked media freedom with economic freedom. On Wednesday evening the US ambassador to South Africa linked media freedom with the fight against corruption. What makes their voices stand out in particular is that both have felt the sharp end of the media – but neither think that's reason enough to muzzle the country.

From US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to Internet guru Clay Shirky, everybody has a story to tell about how Ushahidi is saving lives or impacting on the world with technology for citizens to report and map crisis incidents. Locally Ushahidi was used to track xenophobic violence, but now thanks to the roll out of a new version called Crowdmap, we’re crowdsourcing media freedom too.

As the ANC and media continue to trade blows, there’s a glaring omission in the ruling party’s posturing against the press. It is, of course, the SABC, which makes the ANC-run government one of the biggest media owners in the country - even though this media asset has been eroded by years of mismanagement.

The first trailer of the documentary I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix has just been released. Irritatingly, if you want an explanation for the Oscar-nominated actor’s recent behaviour, it isn’t the place to look. So we offer instead a comparison to Andy Kaufman.